Chapter 20, enjoy! ^^
The kid had stand under the shower for ten minutes now. The door was open, because Dick didn't want his daddy to get out of his sight, though the last ten minutes he had simply stared at the plastic floor underneath him. The water had completely soaked him but the boy seemed not temped to either end the shower or start actually taking a shower. He hadn't touched the shampoo or shower gel nor was actually touching anything. He just stood there, the water running over him, blond hair sticking to his face.
Bruce wasn't sure if the boy was still crying. He had been silence for a while but the warm water streaming down his face made it hard to see if the boy was just drifting off in his thoughts or crying. So there was nothing left to do then to make an attempt to small talk. "You're feeling better?"
The boy looked up, meeting the blue eyes of his father. "No."
The billionaire felt pity. "You think that shower is going to help?"
The boy sighed and looked down. "I guess it won't."
Bruce took a seat on the side of the bubble bath what was now used as a shower. "Dick," the boy turned the water off. He sat down on the rim of the bath too, facing the other way as water dripped down his face. "You know I love you, right?"
Tears shot into the boy's eyes. He looked to his side, meeting blue eyes filled with love. His tears met the water dripping down his face. "But I," the teen whispered in a hoarse and broken voice.
"Dick," the man's voice sounded somewhat pained as his brows crunched together. "I don't care what you did de past months or what you'll ever do. I will always love you. You will never be less than my son to me. You know that, don't you?"
The boy gulped a sob away. He nodded and quickly grabbed his father into a hug. The man didn't care that he would get wet and just hugged back, holding his son he missed so much.
The past moths were for the both of them an emotional roller-coaster and Bruce more than understood the boy was very emotional at the moment. It didn't matter though, because he didn't mind the hugs and the touching that could take place now. Unlike earlier this evening the touches had turned back to the normal comforting ones. The loving ones. The kind he had missed after his parents were murdered. The kind he had found back in Dick. The kind what represented unconditional love.
"I'm so confused," the boy muttered through his tightening throat. "I can't remember why I did all of this. I don't know why and how."
Bruce rubbed the boy's back, his fingers leaving a dry trance on the wet skin of his son. He felt the grip tighten on his shirt.
"I don't, I can't," the boy gasped as he couldn't process his feelings into words. "I," the sobs forced their way back up his throat and cut his attempts to speak short.
Bruce held the sobbing teen for a while, listening to the attempts of explaining. It was until he felt the boy's skin become cool that he released the boy. "Let's get you dried up," the man spoke as he grabbed one of the fluffy towels.
Dick rose, ready to take the towel and dry himself, but Bruce just unfolded the towel and started to rub the boy's head. The Boy Wonder was first a bit surprised, taken of guard with his father treating him like this but his eyes quickly fell shut as he felt the familiar feeling of a memory seep into his mind.
The towel moved to his back leaving his face and hair dry. He remembered the mission he was hit with some paralyzing potion by the Piquing. Batman had carried his limp and unmoving body to the Batmobile and drove him home. He had undressed him in de dressing room and brought him to the bathroom. His father had filled the tub with warm water and laid him in, keeping his wards head up with his hand while the other cupped water and pored it over him. He completely cleaned the boy from the dirt of the messy patrol. Than he used one of the softest towels Wayne Manor possessed to carefully dry him. After the bath he dressed the boy in his pajama and laid him in bed, watching over his sleeping form the rest of the night.
He leaned in a bit closer, feeling the towel dip down to his lower back, his hand finding the fabric of his father's cloths. He could feel it was damp from the hug they shared. Bruce quickly got to his knees and went on with his legs. Before Dick knew it he was dry and wrapped into another towel, keeping him warm as his dad walked of. He returned with the boy's boxer.
"I guess this has to do for a pajama for now," the man smirked and Dick returned it.
"Thanks," he said, taking it and putting it on. He hadn't bring anything else with him except for the cloths he was wearing. His bag with all his belongings were still in the club and he wasn't feeling anything for returning to get it. Se he just settled for the boxer and followed his dad into the room.
He felt the soft carped between his toes as he walked over to the bed where Bruce was already pulling the blankets to the side, gesturing Dick to get in. The boy quickly got in, taking the usual left side, he always took when he slept in Bruce's bed. The Dark Knight took the right side of the bed and turned the lights of with the small remote what rested on the nightstand.
"It'll be a short nap," the man informed the boy who snuggled up against him, his cool body longing for the warmth of his father's body.
Dick hummed questioningly, not feeling anything for actually using words.
"The money I used for this room is directly from Bruce Wayne's account. We have to leave before anyone notice that my account has been used and trace it back here. I have to erase the information from the system here so they won't start looking for us here." The man explained.
Dick hummed again, this time in an understanding way. The boy almost imminently fell asleep when the silence fell. Bruce watched as he saw his son's breathing even out.
He moved the blonde locked out of his son's face, smiling at his sons peaceful face before closing his eyes too and feel the world slip away.
-\/-
"Dick," blue eyes opened, imminently closing after receiving the strong light. He moaned and turned around, pressing his face into the big and soft pillows. "Dick, get up."
"It's too early," the boy whined into the pillow, refusing to get out.
Bruce reached out for his son but when his hand touched the boy he gasped, turning around quickly to face his father. When he saw the familiar face he let a sigh escape. "Don't startle me like that," the boy moaned as he shove a hand over his face, rubbing his eyes.
Normally Bruce would have commented on Dick's unneeded startle but he knew better. The boy probably forgot in his sleepiness he wasn't in a stagers bed but his father's.
"Sorry, but we have to go," The man threw the sweatpants and shirt to the boy smirking as he saw the boy's sleepy eyes mock him. He was playing cocky.
"No socks?" the boy teased as he pulled the shirt over his head and slipped from underneath the warm blankets. He quickly pulled the sweatpants over his legs and walked over to the bathroom.
The protégé took his place next to his father, watching the circles under his eyes in the mirror. Little sleep didn't suit him.
Bruce noticed the stare and ruffled the boy's hair, making even more of a mess from the already pointing-to-every-directions haircut. "Dad!" the boy whined as he blocked his father's hands. "You're making it worse," Dick held his hands under the tab and pushed his now wet fingers through his hair, trying to tame it down a bit. It still looked messy, but more controlled and he was okay with that for now. It was like 3 am anyways, so there is not really anyone out there to see.
He plashed some water in his face to wake up a bit more and after drying his face he saw Bruce had already packed the few things he had brought with him.
Dick quickly pulled his socks over his feet and stepped into his shoes. "I'm ready."
"Good, we'll take our leave then," the man slung the backpack over his shoulder and opened the door. He watched as his son grabbed his jacked and left the room. He closed the door behind him and walked down the hallway.
They met surprised eyes as they arrived at lobby. "Everything alright sir," the clerk asked, not used to see people depart this early. Not unannounced anyways.
"Yes, everything is fine," Bruce answered approaching the counter. He gave a reassuring and warm smile before placing his hands on top of the counter.
Dick felt something close to dread in his stomach. He knew what Bruce was going to do with the man and he knew why, yet it felt wrong. He hated it when they had to knock out citizens.
"We have to get our flight earlier than expected. I would like to check out," Bruce explained and the man nodded.
The in red dressed man started to type on the keyboard. "A moment please," the clerk spoke as he seemed to scroll down with his mouse.
Gotham's Knight made eye contact with his protégé who nodded, telling his mentor that it was save to engage. Bruce easily hopped over the counter surprising the clerk behind it who stroke a defensive pose. The dark blonde man grabbed the hand from the younger male before him, turning him around to render the man defenseless before placing his hand over his mouth. The clerk squirmed, trying to get free from his twisted arm but quickly lost the power in his legs to keep the struggle up. The man quickly became lax and Bruce placed the man on the chair he had been sitting on. He pocketed the small mask he had hidden in de palm of his hand and took his place behind the computer.
"Dick, can you get the camera's?" the man asked, as he started to hack the computer.
The boy nodded again and started the computer on the other end of the counter. He quickly got into the main frame where the footage was stored and created a little virus what would eat away the files from up to yesterday morning and would slowly die out after a few hours. Once almost died out would be detected by the virus scan of the system and stopped easily. Easy as that!
Bruce on the other hand was busy deleting all files which contained information of their stay and bank account. The room was tagged as empty and nothing would be found again. The man looked up, seeing his son finish his virus and smiled. He had missed his little hacker.
The boy pressed enter fairly proud and turned to his father. "Guess someone has been downloading unsafe files," the boy laughed and return to his father's side. "Where will we go now?"
"The cave," the man smiled and left the hotel.
"The Batcave, you mean?" the boy followed his father into the night. It was cold and the wind felt like it could cut you skin though there was one snow to be seen.
"No, we're going to Mount Justice," the man confirmed. "Returning to the Batcave or our home is still very dangerous."
"Can't we go to the Watchtower than?" the boy watched as Bruce typed on his phone. "Isn't it saver there then in the Cave? The Cave was hacked and footage was leaked."
A yellow cap suddenly stopped next to them and the Batman turned to it, only to open the door. Dick frowned as he watched his father step into a cap like they were not the most wanted person in Gotham right now. But when he saw the cabby tip his hat he knew it was okay and slipped in as well.
"Alfred," the boy sung as he buckled his seatbelt. "Good to see you," the boy smiled. Bruce had kept their precious butler and ally save successfully as he had promised the first day everything went wrong.
"Good to see you're back too, sir," the British accent sounded as the car started and drove off.
That was the moment Dick realized Alfred had most likely heard the conversation between him and Bruce in the car on the way to the hotel. He gasped and sunk into the backseat, breaking eye contact with the butler.
A warm hand curled around Dick's shoulder. His eyes quickly met the blue eyes of his father. "It's okay Dick, I'll explain it to him later." The teen nodded wearily.
"You haven't answered my question, though," the boy continued. "Why we're going to the Cave. Information has already leaked from there. I don't think that's the save option."
"I actually wanted you to look into that. The league couldn't find the leak. We still don't know how the footage could have been stolen. But there has nothing been found in the server as far as the League is cable to detect. So I hoped you could check the hardware and software of the mainframe stationed at Mount Justice."
"Sure, I could do that. But can't we do than when we have settled?"
"We're not going to settle Dick," The young teen frowned on his father's words but couldn't question it before Bruce continued. "We're not fleeing, we're regrouping. We're going to ready ourselves and take back Gotham."
"But those gang wars are out of hand! How are we going to stop it, that's impossible. We'd need the whole Justice League to have a change. You are aware of the prison break from Arkham Asylum, right?"
"I know Dick," the man smiled a comforting smile. "But we have to do this. Alone that is. We need to win back Gotham and the League can't help. Now that we're compromised we have to do this alone and make sure the criminals know that they can't mess with us, even now with their new knowledge."
The blonde teen was silence, wrapping his head around the biggest mission he will ever have in his life. And that without his team or the League. In all honesty it kind of scared him. Just defeating the Joker or Two face at their own was a big task to accomplish, let alone all of them together, while they're at war for the reign of Gotham.
"It's okay Dick, we'll train first. That's also a reason I want to be at Mount Justice so that you can train with the team."
Dick was silence as he felt the weariness settle. This was too much. Bruce had never asked this much of him. Winning Gotham back. All he wanted now was sleep. Not the biggest challenge in his life. Tears started to prickle in his eyes as he felt his emotion run up. How was he going to pull this off? How!?
"Calm down," Dick's eyes snapped up and quickly found the warm face if his father. "I have a plan. But first you need some sleep. You barely had any and this can be overwhelming without a good rest."
The teen sighed as he placed his head against the shoulder of his father, eyes falling shut. He felt his body go heavy before a shrug of his father pulled him out of his paradoxical sleep.
"We're here," Bruce smiled as he saw the bewildered face of his son. "You fell asleep."
The boy looked out of the tinted window to see a way to familiar ally holding a telephone booth taped with an "out of order" seal-strip what he knew was already broken before. He used this Zeta-Tube transporter often if he went to Mount Justice after school. Thinking about Mount Justice made his stomach drop. He was afraid of the teams reaction. Well, actually he was the most scared of Wally. Would Wally recognize him as Alex? He barely remembered the time he spend with Wally but he knew it he had done a few things to get the redhead off his back. Maybe it was good that they went in now. The speedster wouldn't be awake or even present at 4am. That gave him time to get this Alex persona off of him. He graved for his black locks and longed for a good trim of his hair, it was getting long and slackly. The blonde hair tented to either brother him by moving in his face or hang back like he belonged in a Italian mafia.
The door clicked shut behind him after he heard a quick bye from Bruce to the butler. "Let's go, Dick."
He felt the dread settle even more as he was leaded to the telephone booth. He took a deep and hasted breath like he was about to be plumed into deep waters. He kept repeating the mantra that Wally wasn't at Mount Justice or even awake at 4 am, in his head, just to try to steady his heartbeat.
The indispensable sound of the booth opening and the Zeta-Tube roaring to life filled his ears as he couldn't help but squeeze his eyes shut and repeat one more time that he would just walk in and walk straight to his room, shut the door behind him and have a good and peaceful night. He could even take a bit of the afternoon for extra good measure.
His hero's name and that of his father's was announced as he saw the cave reappear before his eyes. He had thought to never see this place again. To be never called Robin again. But somehow he felt out of place, even if this was the place he wanted to return to for the longest of time. When did he actually started to fear this place? When did dread replaced joy as he knew he would meet his team soon?
The was complete silence as he looked around the Mission Room. It hadn't changed in the months he had been gone. He didn't expect it to, yet it felt like it did. Or it should have. His life completely changed. Everything changed. But not this place. It felt like it was not even in his time stream. Like it hadn't been here when everything started to go wrong.
It felt wrong as he heard his footsteps ego together with his father's. Normally the room was either filled with laughter or debriefing. Normally the room was so lively, but now it felt dead and empty. He felt like a thief, entering a place he didn't belong in.
The steady pace of the Dynamic Duo brought them halfway down the hall before the first sound was made by someone else but them. Dick's heart stopped for a second as he heard the distinctive sound of feet moving faster that humanly possible.
His fingers cramped into a fist as his head snapped to his father, his eyes speaking of his panic. Bruce frowned confused at his son wild and big eyes. It was a glance he would have expected in the field, finding the Joker being behind you, not it the Cave.
That glance was the thing tipping him off something more was going on. There was another reason why Dick didn't want to return to the Cave. Could it possibly be Wally? Why Wally?
Before Bruce could make any deductions, the said speedster had already entered the picture, running down the hall in his trousers and shirt inside out. The redhead looked bewildered, hasted but most of all beamed all over. He hadn't seen Wally look so happy for a long time.
Both non-powered humans watched as the hyped feelings of the speedster slowly transform into complete dread on his face as he came to a halt.
There was a moment of nothing as the speedster just watched the two before him and the dynamic duo watched the ginger. It was the moment the hall filled itself with the rest of the team that the time seemed to continue.
Megan was the first to say Robin's name in a questioning manner before Wally sharply cut in.
"Alex?"
The jigsaw puzzle completed itself before Bruce's eyes as he saw a combinations of denial and pure contempt in Wally's eyes.
"You shouldn't had come looking for me."
The loud sound of hand hitting skin sounded as Dick's head snapped to the side, before Dick started to tumble. He caught himself before actual falling but didn't look back up.
"What the fuck!?" the speedster shouted as he watch the boy steady himself. Wally's hand formed a fist around the fabric of Dick's shirt and pulled shirt and boy toward him with a yank, forcing the younger teen to look him in the eyes. "You were trying to fucking rape me!"
The already astonished team gasped even louder now. Both the teens weren't making any sense.
Bruce ushered between the two teens, breaking them up like a wall, tough it was only one side of the wall who protested against it. "Do you even know what your son has been doing out on the streets."
"We'll discuss this tomorrow," the steel voice of the Dark Knight sounded cold and showed no emotions.
"He was fucking men!"
The man opened his mouth to tell the speedster to shut it when Dick suddenly passed the save wall his father had created only to point a finger at the redhead and hiss the most cold words the team had heard him say. "Get the fuck off my back you little shit!" the silence explosion off anger and shame didn't stay unnoticed by the team as Robin spat the words in his former team mate and brushed roughly past the speedster and the team to walk down the hall.
The team's attention returned to the man before Wally. "As I said; tomorrow. Now, to bed," the team watched wearily as Bruce followed his son, yaw clenched painfully. Damn Wally had pissed off Batman badly.
The team returned to their rooms, only to be left alone to wallow in the few words shed by the speedster. "Rape, fucking men" that didn't sound like their little brother. But Wally's anger wasn't usual either.
-\/-
As Bruce entered the room he saw Dick sit on his bed, legs crossed and hands formed into a cramped fist, pressed against his lips as anger radiated from the boy. He saw the tears shine in his eyes. He closed the door behind him, alerting the boy he had entered.
"Go away," the boy growled in a low and dark voice. Bruce had never heard the boy talk to him like that, though somehow it didn't surprise him. There was something wrong with his son, dead wrong. But he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Dick," the man started slowly, noticing the reaction the boy gave on his name. It almost seemed like someone kicked him in the stomach. An arching and painful wince as if he wasn't supposed to be called that. "I'll stay with you tonight, to keep you save."
A shaky gasp sounded from the boy before he shot up to his father to throw himself into his arms, trembling as he stood on his toes to whisper in his father's ear. "I'm so confused, I don't understand why I'm reacting like I am," his arms cramped a bit tighter around his father's neck as he pressed his eyes shut, forcing the liquid to spill over.
The man made a hushing sound before ushering the boy to the bed side. "Let's first sleep. Forget everything for now and save it for tomorrow. We'll fix everything," the was a silence as the man created a little distance between him and his son. The boy looked up to his guardian with wet eyes and cheeks and Bruce brushed the wet stroke away from his right cheek.
"I'll fix you,"
Suddenly the boy seemed to break from the inside out and tears streamed over his face again as his expression turned into a pained one. Bruce pulled the boy's head close again, cradling it against his broad chest. Trembling arms found their way around the strong man's back as he leaned into the embrace.
The loud cries filled the room as all the emotions fought their way up through the boy's throat in a choking manner. Snot started to drip from the boy's nose while he buried his head tighter against the man's chest.
There was a lot of fixing to do indeed.